Pictures do not display as thumbnail preview

Anonymous
2010-02-03T09:23:47+00:00

In Windows 7, I can't get pictures to show as thumbnail previews. I've tried three different methods suggested on this site. Why is this so difficult?__

The three methods I've tried are as follows:

1.    Open the folder in Windows Explorer and click the down arrow next to Views at the top.  Choose Medium icons and see if the thumbnails start working again.

2.    If not, click on Organize, then Folder and Search Options.  Click the View tab.  Make sure that "Always show icons, never thumbnails" does not have a check mark next to it.

3.    Open Control Panel. (Classic View). Click on the System icon. Click on the advanced system settings link. Under Performance, click on the Settings button. In the Visual Effects tab, Check "Show thumbnails instead of icons.”

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-08-16T19:59:31+00:00

Not sure where these answers were going but to simply make your pictures show in thumbnail mode in win7 simply open your pictures folder, click tools, folder options, view, then uncheck "Always show icons, never thumbnails"

Don't forget to hit apply!

That should do it.

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Anonymous
2010-10-30T14:32:38+00:00

Click on the Start button, go to Control Panel.  In Control Panel select System.  From the System window select Advanced system settings.  Select Performance settings.  Be sure the box Show thumbnails instead of icons is checked.

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Anonymous
2010-02-04T05:02:06+00:00

Hi RRWilcox,

You may try the following steps and check whether you can get thumbnail previews.

  1. Open the Pictures library by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Pictures.
  2. In the left pane, click the folder that contains the pictures you want to view.
  3. Click the arrow next to the Views button, and then move the slider to change the size of the thumbnails.

For more information, you may refer the following link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/View-and-print-picture-thumbnails

You may also try to Enable or disable the thumbnail preview using group policy editor.

Note: The following steps won’t work in home editions of Windows 7.

To do this, follow the steps:

  1. Click on start and type gpedit.msc in start search bar and press enter.
  2. Now navigate to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar in left pan of Group Policy Editor
  3. Locate “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails” in right pan of Group policy editor and double click on it.
  4. Select Enable or Disable click apply and Press ok
  5. Now check your Taskbar, it shouldn’t show Thumbnails Preview.

Please Note: Taskbar Thumbnail Preview only works when you have Enabled Aero in Windows 7.

Hope this information is helpful.

Praseetha. K.

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-22T03:38:24+00:00

    Massive resetting of the hidden attributes can be done by right clicking the (my pictures) listing on the folder tree, and select properties, general tab section, check the hidden box and click on apply, this will change all of the files to hidden, click yes, then uncheck the hidden box and apply, it will remove the hidden attribute from all of your files, click on yes, then save.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-22T03:30:27+00:00

    Exactly what Lin52 said. Tried all of the deselecting/selecting, tried deleting the thumbnail cache, applying to all files, changing default viewer, changing size of thumbnails.

    None of it works.

    Symptoms are that maybe 10% of thumbnails show as correct image, the balance are all the default viewer icon. The mix of good image to icon seems random, with no accounting for date of creation, type of file, size of file, etc.

    The green task bar at the top of the explorer page s-l-o-w-l-y cranks to maybe 95%-ish green, but fails to complete the cycle regardless of how long it's left to complete it's task.

    This sucks. Hard. Not being able to see the thousands of images I've created/saved to my PC makes it not worth having. Someone help?

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